Project Number: 3625-21000-056-01
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 07, 2008
End Date: Jun 12, 2009

Objective:
The objectives of this research are to 1) breed high yielding corn with enhanced nutritional value for the Northern Corn Belt, 2) adapt the corn to the conditions found on farms using sustainable farming practices, and 3) achieve acceptance of these cultivars by end users such as livestock farmers and poultry producers.

Approach:
1)Interact with a team including USDA and ISU scientists and PFI to select varieties for breeding, plan experiments, test corn, develop methods for screening lines for desired traits, and for outreach and publication efforts. 2)Utilize a crossing, inbreeding and test-cross facilitated breeding program to identify and fix corn lines with desired traits, and crossing and recurrent selection to improve desired traits such as the content of methionine and lysine in grain. 3)In conjunction with others, fully utilize and improve the accuracy of a near infra red spectroscopy-based test for screening whole grain samples for essential amino acids. 4)Evaluate the adaptation of lines and their hybrids to organic farming systems in the Northern Corn Belt, including their agronomic traits and their ability to suppress weeds. 5)Help coordinate on-farm trials with hybrids and publicize the results. 6)Interact with end-users such as seed and organic poultry companies with advice and to help facilitate poultry company sponsored feeding trials with grain from our cultivars.